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A roundup of what the Globe and Mail's market strategist Scott Barlow is reading this morning on the world wide web.

Asian equity markets got blasted in their Friday trading session after Chinese officials announced retaliatory tariffs against the United States.

The risks are real – large scale portfolio managers can't confidently predict future profits for a lot of multinational stocks and thus can't be sure about stock valuations – but there are good reasons for investors to take a deep breath and avoid panic.

U.S. tariffs won't take effect until a period of inter-agency discussions, study and public hearings. The president has previously backed off on bellicose negotiating language on steel and aluminum tariffs with exemptions, and the White House is also considered to be walking back tough talk on the Canadian auto sector as part of the NAFTA talks.

There is still a lot of room for U.S. and China negotiations before tariffs take effect. The Chinese could also shut down U.S.-owned operations there with health inspections, but that's not in their long term best interests. We'll see.

"Beijing warns of 'people's war' against U.S.: Chinese consumers now global superpower" – Report on Business

"Trump slaps China with tariffs on up to $60 billion in imports: 'This is the first of many'" – CNBC

"@jjeswani Daiwa: We do not see this, nor a widespread bilateral trade war between the US and China. Rather we see a series of skirmishes that will achieve their objectives, which are ostensibly about domestic US politics." – (research excerpt) Twitter

"What's Intellectual Property and Does China Steal It?" – Bloomberg

"U.S. Shoppers and Chinese Suppliers Face Hit From Trump Levy" – Bloomberg

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Canaccord strategist Martin Roberge believes he knows why Canadian equity markets have underperformed the S&P 500 so badly,

"On a forward price-to-earnings basis, Canada's stock benchmark is at the cheapest relative to the S&P 500 Index since the financial crisis. But Roberge suggests looking at the ratio of enterprise value, or market capitalization plus debt, to sales. By that metric, U.S. stocks are actually slightly cheaper than their Canadian counterparts, according to Bloomberg data -- a fact that may help explain why the S&P/TSX has lagged the S&P 500 for much of the past decade."

"Canadian Stocks Look Cheap -- Until You Factor in Record Debt" – Bloomberg

"@SBarlow_ROB Nomura: NAFTA bounce but mid-term weakness for CAD" – (research excerpt) Twitter

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The momentum investing strategy – buying stocks with the most rapid price and earnings growth – has outperformed for a number of years. Momentum investing was also popular in the late 1990s, and has two major drawbacks. One, it ignores valuations and top performers can get ludicrously expensive. Two, when the momentum trend ends the 'drawdowns' or declines in most popular stocks tend to be big.

Bloomberg highlights how political risk and valuations might soon end the momentum party,

"Stock Rout Could Be Just the Start of Trouble for Momentum Chasers" – Bloomberg

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Tweet of the Day: "@michaelsantoli Everyone says "corrections are a process, not a moment." This is what that process looks and feels like. This market remains harder to please and easier to rattle, in a muddy neutral zone amid an economic soft patch and a "move the chains" Fed, plus loss of Big Tech leadership." – Twitter

Diversion: "Amazon is a notoriously secretive company, but its recent conference provides a glance at its far-out plans." – M.I.T. Technology Review

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